Monday, 6 September 2010

After the second world war, Hoogeveen (current population 54000), a town which was growing rapidly due to being the centre for many industries, became more and more car oriented. Space was made for wide roads on "American" lines. This happened in several places in the Netherlands.

These old photos show how Hoogeveen's main street, Hoofdstraat, changed over the years, and demonstrate the progression towards car orientation:
1945. Canal is still in use.

1951. The canal has been filled in to provide for more "traffic possibilities."

1960. More cars have appeared, but trees are still in the centre of the road.

1965. Space in the centre of the road primarily used for parking cars.

2010. It's no longer all about cars, and the water is back. A second revolution has taken place.

Here's a video showing how it looks now:

This video has explanatory captions which are not visible on mobile devices. Please view on a computer for the explanation.

Note how not only are people and bikes back, but water has come back to the centre of the road as well in an echo of the situation 60 years ago - though of course it is not navigable as it was back then.

This space, like in the centre of Assen, is primarily for pedestrians and cyclists. Motorists are not central as they would be in shared space. The area allows cars for access, but doesn't encourage through journeys.

The best thing about wide roads like this is that they offer lots of opportunities to change them. Hoogeveen's centre no longer looks at all like it used to. You can also look at it yourself by using Google's Streetview:

Hoogeveen isn't the only place which changed to be more car oriented and then had to fight back to recreate decent living conditions. Nijmegen, Den Bosch, Groningen and Assen show similar transformations.

6 comments:

Great comparison David. One thing that people seem to misunderstand here in North America is that they seem to think that the Netherlands has *always* been bicycle friendly. They say that North American cities "could never" be like the Netherlands.

But this is absurd. We can do it just as well as the Netherlands - we just need the political willpower, and spend a little bit of money, and motorists will need to sacrifice a little bit of space (as they did in Hoogeveen when they lost some parking spaces).

Yeah, definitely agree with James S. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me inspired and motivated in LA, these transformations. However, one thing that may be a problem is bus routes.... Bus routes can be changed of course, especially if it means getting something like you shared with us. This post also reminds me we shouldn't battle for just bike lanes, stuff like this is far more effective in getting folks out of cars. Thanks for the excellent post!

James: Motorists lost more than just "a few parking spaces." They lost the whole road.

However, it's not really a loss. Like everywhere else in the Netherlands, everyone cycles. What actually happened is that everyone gained a more pleasant cycling and walking environment in the centre of the city.

I don't know for certain if bus routes were diverted, though they probably were. However, there are bus stops within a short walk. Older people who have trouble with walking very often find it easier to cycle than to walk, and are quite likely to cycle to the centre in preference to taking a bus.

Looks awfully like the centre of Bristol, where a whole branch of the harbour was paved over to widen the inner ring road. So far the city has taken baby steps towards reclaiming its centre, but even these continue to be held up by the Motorists...

Bristol has even managed to install similar crappy water features that are no substitute for the original ;)

Study Tours

You've read the blog, now see everything with your own eyes. Since 2006, hundreds of people have joined us on our Cycling Study Tours.
First hand experience is better than reading. Book a tour to see how policy and infrastructure have attracted people from all walks of life to cycle:

Support this blog

Thousands of hours of work have gone into compiling the information on this blog but we do not receive grants and we do not ask for charity to support us.

You can help to make further blog posts possible by buying proven bicycle components from us:

Copyright and Licensing

This blog is free of charge to read and for most individual usage including reasonable "quoting" of its contents. However, neither the text nor the photos on this blog are in the public domain. To find out more, please read our copyright and licensing information.

Search This Blog

Loading...

Non-sponsored links

Experience for yourself how policy and infrastructure in Assen and Groningen have led to the high cycling modal share in this area:

If you like this blog please support us so we can continue. We sell quality bicycle components:

Cycling holidays in Assen and Drenthe, where this blog is based:
All the youtube videos from this blog:

About us

A cyclist in a cycling family living in the capital of the cycling province of the world's greatest cycling country.
I was born in the UK, lived for over 8 years in New Zealand and have lived in the Netherlands since 2007.
I organise cycling infrastructure study tours, run an online bicycle shop, arrange cycling holidays and write a popular blog about cycling.
My email address is avftcp@hembrow.eu